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Saturday, July 24, 2010

Villa Carlotta

One of the things I find fascinating about plants is their Latin names - Citrus Paradisi, isn't that exquisite and tempting? The Villa Carlotta is indeed famous for its botanical gardens. Fragrant with gardenias, dotted with hundreds of camellias, it includes some very exotic specimens and spectacular landscaping.The Citrus Tunnel for instance, which is literally a tunnel made of orange, lemon and grapefruit trees of all kinds, seemed like something out of Alice In Wonderland.Inside, the villa, we discovered some moving sculptures. I adore how the hard, cold marble can convey the limpness of a Madonna's hand, the delicate curves of a body. Really, how can marble dance?

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Only the masters knew how to make marble dance...I have no idea, even though I've seen people working with it. Up close, to see a statue in a state of movement, not static is wonderful, but also bewildering sometimes. Suddenly, Daphne & Apollo from the Villa Borghese in Rome popped into my mind. I always felt like she was about to get away.

About the gardens...I vaguely remember ferns, lots of ferns. Somewhere. But also that those camellias were huge, very large for the climate. Perhaps protected in a way. I'm not sure.

I don't remember the citrus, so I can't have gone through (or maybe it wasn't there many years ago?) because I love citrus & would remember.

Ah, that's it. I didn't dream up ferns then. Oh, it's been so long that it doesn't count, M-L. But I do love ferns...there loads of them out back of my little apt. bldg, a finger of Rock Creek Park in DC/MD extends right into this very urban area. GG & I pretend that we're in the forest.

And with that I bid au revoir, hope the power doesn't go out (rec'd text that bad storms on the way)...& to figure out when iTunes will download the first Mad Men episode. It must be stated somewhere. As a veteran of this Mad Men on iTunes, perhaps you'll see this & say. Though don't for heaven's sake interrupt fun for it.